The gardens are lovely if smallish, we find:

• An avenue of huge palms
• The occasional (genuine) ancient ruin that you can walk in.
• A pond with terrapins
• The spanish fountain - Canopy with a lady pouring water.
• A children's library
• A playground

We sit by the central lake, make peace and get a booking at the ‘funky gourmet’- a two Michelin star restaurant near our hotel.

Then we walk on to the plaka area - the old town of Athens which is cute busy and very touristy. We wander through it avoiding the hard sell restaurant owners and head towards the Parthenon and an area called Anafiotika.

This area under the acropolis was settled by islanders who built very tiny houses with very narrow streets. A series of shoulder width alleyways wind between tiny old houses, you can never see more than a few meters ahead. There are cats everywhere.

We walk through it among the old doorways and tiny windows coming out at the front of the north slope of the acropolis then head down through tourist land (lots of cool tavernas). Cara buys some cute curios for various family members and we make it back to the metro area just in time for the 5pm changing of the guard.

This involves a lot of ceremonial marching in their very silly uniforms. As it is executed painfully slowly with difficult freezing in awkward positions it is actually quite physically impressive. Also they have steel nailed boot soles and a marble surface to walk on. At the end they stand rigid while an officer straightens their clothes and carefully (intimately?) wipes their faces with the long tassels from their hats. Then home in rush hour (metro is still pretty nice) to shower and dress for our fancy meal.